Travel Time Essay

991 Words2 Pages

Majority Opinion The issue is whether the traveling time that miners take to get to the face of the mine counts as working time under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The State of Confusion should adopt the majority’s opinion and hold travel time as work time. This position held that because the workers were under employer supervision, physical exertion was involved because they are performing a service, and the worker is doing this work to benefit the employer travel time should count as worktime. Lunch time does not count as worktime because the employee is not supervised and it is for their benefit, by contrast travel time is worktime because there is supervision, it is not the employees own time, and it is for …show more content…

In Sunshine Mining Co. v. Carver (1941), the court affirms that during this time the employee is under the control, direction and supervision of the employer, so they should be getting paid for it. The employee voluntarily offers themselves to the employer at a specific time. The employer decides the place of work and the distance to get to this destination may be short or long. Therefore, such travel time between the portal and the place of work should be considered worktime.
Another argument is that the employers are active during the travel time. In Tennessee Coal, Iron & R. Co. v. Muscoda Local No. 123, 135 F.2d 320 (1943), the court held that the employers “exacted mental and physical exertion from the employees under conditions both hazardous and unhealthy” during the travelling time. Since the workers are performing services for the employer, the employer should pay the worker for their time.
Next, the court believes that the employees were on their work time because work begins when the employee reaches the entrance to their workplace. As said by the Supreme Court in Bountiful Brick Company et al. v. Giles, 276 U.S. 154 (1402) “as a general rule, employment may be said to begin when the employee reaches the entrance of the employer 's premises where the work is to be

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